More than 60 Carmel Clay schoolteachers lined a busy 116th Street on Tuesday afternoon, waving signs and attracting honks during a picket venting their frustration over contract talks.

Written by

Dan McFeely

CARMEL - More than 60 Carmel Clay schoolteachers lined a busy 116th Street on Tuesday afternoon, waving signs and attracting honks during a picket venting their frustration over contract talks.

Carmel is the only school district in Indiana without a teacher's contract. Negotiations have been ongoing since August, but the two sides have reached an impasse that is now in the hands of a state fact-finder.

"It's just really discouraging," said Ashley Ritsema, 25, a first-year kindergarten teacher at Forest Dale Elementary School. "I feel that there is very little respect for the teachers who ...